Green Options

Motorola has announced plans to launch the world’s first completely carbon neutral mobile phone, at CES 2009 in Las Vegas.

The shell of the W233 Renew is made entirely of recycled water bottles, and will be available via T-Mobile within the next three months. The struggling cell phone manufacturer has also teamed up with CarbonFund.org to offset the energy used in the manufacture, distribution and operation of each phone throughout its lifetime.

Landor Associates, a leading strategic brand consulting and design firm, has released their second annual trends outlook, which provides “predictions” for 2009 including sustainability.

With a campaign tag line, CHANGE WE NEED, President-Elect Barack Obama and a large portion of the American population should have some rather meaningful New Year resolutions for 2009.

For many of us, as we review the financial carnage of 2008 and the dismal outcomes of poorly conceived foreign policy decisions on the part of the George W. Bush Administration over the course of his term (practically rubber stamped by the majority of Congress), we are looking forward to the New Year, a new start, and a renewed sense of hope.

Among the first steps, before we usher in the New Year, is a New Year’s Resolution. But unlike years past, will we embrace the responsibility, sacrifice and curtailment so necessary in these times of climate change, ecological collapse, peak oil and the economic hardship experienced by so many, caused in a large part by our debt-based, growth-on-an-infinite-planet obsessed approach to capitalism? Or do we just try to refinance our house one more time, to take advantage of the latest Red Tag Sale?

Here’s some restorative resolutions for 2009:

1. Stop being a consumer: Let’s get back to an era, as imperfect as it was, where we were citizens or people, instead of being nothing more than consumers.
2. Break our fossil fuel addition: Our fossil-fuel-based luxuries and lifestyle are coming at a dire cost to the planet (if not, also, leading to unprecedented exploitation of people to provide those goods or services at cheap prices). Plus, there’s a good chance that fossil-fuel-based energy is going to get a lot more expensive in the coming years. Let’s cut fossil fuel use out of our lives like we might cut a cancer out of our bodies. Renewable energy is in abundance around us, so why not embrace the sun, one of my “Strategies of Abundance for ecopreneurs“.

2008 - what a year! As we get ready to draw the curtains on one of the most unsettling economic years in history, we the writers of the Inspired Economist are still wondering… was this year one that has left our battered economy begging for inspiration? Or have the sustainable events of 2008 spearheaded the initiation of what we believe is truly an Inspired Economy?

2008 was about the $700 billion bailout. Foreclosures. The plummeting stock market. As the year came [...]

Considering the fact that diesel cars have been nearly non-existent in the US for the last decade, the Green Car Journal’s choice of the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI as the Green Car of the Year comes as a bit of a surprise — especially because its competition included two hybrids, and a Smart fortwo.

I know it’s a little premature to be talking about 2009 but I wanted to beat the rush, so here are some of things we have to look forward to in 2009.

Honda hybrid - Apparently someone finally convinced Honda that the ‘cover up half of the back tire’ look was downright ugly and so in 5 short months Honda lovers can own a Honda hybrid …without having to tint the windows so much. No word yet on mpg.

Energy - What do the Phoenix Suns, Jay Leno, and Sun Chips have in common? They’ve all gone solar. Look for the conversation surrounding energy sources to turn up a notch, what with T. Boone flying everywhere to promote his energy plan for the U.S.A., and businesses taking energy procurement or energy-creation under their own wings as part of company strategy. In 2009, and more so in the following years, expect to see the energy industry decentralize and the ability to choose where you get your energy from. What Dean Foods is doing in Gooding, ID (turning cow poo into energy) is a good example of what is down the road.

Dutch-based EV start up Detroit Electric has announced that, by the end of next year, it plans to produce a range of affordable electric cars that are much more powerful than existing models and have zero emissions.

The company is in talks with Proton, the national Malaysian car-maker to produce the cars at their facilities in South East Asia. It is also in negotiations with two other, as yet unnamed, auto manufacturers from Germany and the U.S.

Speaking at a prototype viewing at the Proton test circuit in Malaysia, Detroit Electric’s Chief Executive, Albert Lam said, “We believe in affordable electric vehicles for the public. That is our dream … to find innovative ways to counter global warming.”

The cars, a sportscar, a sedan and a subcompact car, will feature a li-ion battery with a range of 200 miles on a single 7-8 hour charge and a total life span of 125,000 miles. They will also contain electric motor technology produced in-house. According to Chief Scientist Frits van Breemen-Schneider, the motor is 4 to 12 times lighter than exisiting designs, giving it a superior power-to-weight ratio. This means that it can produce 5kw of power per kilogram, whereas the best electric car in existence can only currently produce 0.25 kw per kilogram.

Since last year, many of us have been eagerly awaiting the introduction of ‘clean-diesels’: the 2008-2009 models touted as having superior mileage and cleaner emissions than comparable gas models.

So where are they? Strangely, promised 2008 models didn’t materialize, and I had trouble finding more on the story. As far as I can tell, we’ll just have to look forward to next summer’s release of the 2009 VW Jetta TDI. The new Jetta gets similar mileage to older models, 50 mpg ( though VW engineers claim 30% better mileage under real world conditions). More importantly though, it’s the first diesel to meet the world’s toughest emissions standards, California’s Tier II, bin 5, earning it clean-diesel status. If you noticed the recent lack of diesel vehicles for sale (especially in CA), it was the direct result of reengineering emissions systems:

Although it won’t be wearing the “BlueTec” badge, the Jetta will be using emission-cleansing technologies developed under the cooperative formed by Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen to make it 50-state legal. Most BlueTec vehicles control NOx emissions—one of the biggest environmental hurdles facing diesels, along with particulate matter—by injecting a urea-based solution into the exhaust system upstream from the catalytic converter, where NOx is then converted into nitrogen and water. The Jetta will instead use a NOx-storage catalyst, which is basically a reservoir that temporarily holds the noxious emissions, like a particulate filter, until they can be burned off during one of the engine cycles.